CategoryMaryland

Monarch caterpillars are not easy to come by. In the last five summers I’ve spent at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland, I’ve only come across several caterpillars per season. This year, our lab is full of monarch caterpillars with a count currently up to 13 caterpillars, three of which are forming their chrysalis shells and undergoing metamorphosis.

With the use of a microscope, we can photograph monarch caterpillars up close and personal. The monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus) in these photos was one of the first caterpillars we caught this season and is now being raised in our lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD. Photo by Dejeanne Doublet